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Chapter 5. The Underworld 137
well-being is spent in maintaining the illusion of immortality. Because of immortality,
or the illusion of such, one can afford to believe that all of life’s little details are
of greatest importance, and because everything thing is important to such a great
magnitude, many spend their illusory immortal years pondering the “right decision.”
In this sense, the ancient Scandinavian knew where the source of wisdom truly lay:
in the Underworld, the Land of the Dead. These “great decisions,” most of which
are little more than silly pontifications made great only by the amount of time and
energy put into them, can usually be pared down to realistic proportions in the face
of one’s own demise. If one is going to be put under the grass tomorrow, a great
decision like whether to “buy American” or to “go with a Japanese model” becomes
relatively meaningless and trivial. Contemplation of death and mortality carries the
message that there really are very few “big” decisions, and in this way, ancestral
wisdom can be utilized.
There is an interesting phenomenon which seems to be common to those nearing
death: they tend to drop all the meaningless little details of life, the things that
they once thought were so important, and try to put their lives in order before they
die. They call their family together, atone for harm they have brought to others
or to hose they have neglected through the years, and, in general, attempt to deal
with only those things that are truly important. Most curiously, those are the very
things about which the Hávamál speaks: family, friendship, quality of a life lived,
and the prospect of leaving a fair name for oneself. The entire chaotic list of life’s
little details fall together for the very first time in many cases, so that only the truly
important things carry meaning. Without an Underworld tradition, modern man
must wait until he is confronted with the reality of death before the true meaning
of life, the wisdom of the ancestors, makes itself known.
The Germanic concept of Midgard has much to do with people’s desire and
ability to place themselves spatially in the universe utilizing the constructs of the
World Tree and the Flow of the Waters of Life. Within such a world view, each
has a place and a function which is not separated from anything else (see Chap..
3). This is not difficult to accept or realize because it is observable in the world
at large. On the other hand, the Underworld tradition is only observable in the
effects that it has on people’s behaviors, in their sense of well-being, and in their
personally-experienced quality of life. That those who have undergone near-death
experiences have been changed by the experience is rarely doubted, but exactly
what has been changed is not always clear. These changes cannot be seen directly
but can only be experienced, and experience without physical evidence is difficult
for the 20 th century mind. The tradition of Midgard places one spatially within
families, communities, and the World Tree, but the Underworld tradition places one
temporally.